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Good morning. Fortune tech writer Danielle Abril filling in for Adam today. In about a month, Hollywood will come together for arguably the biggest night in the movie business: the 92nd annual Oscars.
And to the surprise, and in some cases frustration, of many, Netflix will arrive at the awards packing the most nominations of any movie studio. The online streaming service raked in 24 nominations this year, including two for best picture, eclipsing big blockbuster producers like Disney and Sony.
This is the first time a streaming service is the studio to beat at the Academy Awards.
Netflix is up nine nominations from last year—proving that streaming services aren’t pulling any punches when it comes to the content they’re producing. They’re taking on the big dogs via a slew of original films boasting star-studded casts including Robert DeNiro, Adam Driver, and Scarlett Johansson (and that’s just on Netflix!).
Not everyone is excited about the new nods from Hollywood’s elite. You might remember last year, following the Best-Picture nomination of Netflix’s Roma, Steven Spielberg argued that movies created by streaming services shouldn’t be eligible for an Oscar. His reasoning: Those films are made for the television screen, not big productions designed to be consumed by mass audiences in large theaters.
Still, while Netflix has managed to capture critics’ attention, it has yet to prove it can sweep.
Last year, Netflix won four of its 15 nominations, with Roma earning three. But it lost the coveted Best Picture award to Universal Picture’s Green Book. While Netflix likely will scoop up some serious hardware this year for The Irishman and Marriage Story, at the Golden Globes, those films took a backseat to Universal Picture’s World War I film 1917 for Best Motion Picture. Netflix only won two of the 34 awards for which it was nominated.
But the 2020 Academy Awards have already proven to be a historic moment for a rapidly changing entertainment landscape. Streaming services are now pushing out polished content that is capturing acclaim from critics and the public. They may need just a little more time to woo the Academy.
Danielle Abril
Twitter: @DanielleDigest
Email: danielle.abril@fortune.com
* * *
A note from Adam about yesterday’s email:
I know full well that Goldman Sachs, not J.P. Morgan, is Apple’s partner in its newly issued credit card that uses Mastercard’s network. I know this in part because I interviewed Harit Talwar, the head of Goldman’s Marcus consumer bank, at the Fortune Brainstorm Finance event in Montauk, N.Y., last summer. I can’t explain why my brain told my fingers to type “J.P. Morgan,” other than perhaps because my own company uses a J.P. Morgan-issued Mastercard. I apologize for misinforming you.
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
Ka-ching. Monday was a big payday for one of the leading financial tech startups. Credit card giant Visa said it would pay $5.3 billion for Plaid, which helps connects thousands of consumer apps to consumers' bank accounts. That's just about double Plaid's most recent private valuation from a 2018 fundraising round.
Refreshing the desktop. After seven straight years of shrinkage, sales of personal computers grew in 2019. Research firm Gartner, which includes 2-in-1 tablets like the Microsoft Surface in its tally, said shipments increased to 261 million units, almost up 1% from 2018. Rival market tracker IDC, which includes Google Chromebooks but not tablets in its count, said sales increased 3% to 267 million. One factor was Microsoft's looming deadline ending support for Windows 7 this month.
Out of order. Startup law firm Atrium is cutting most of its in-house legal staff as it attempts to pivot beyond the legal services market, Axios reports. CEO Justin Kan, a Twitch co-founder, plans to focus on software instead.
Looking for a backdoor. In a deja vu episode of the long-running encryption wars, Attorney General William Barr blasted Apple on Monday for not helping crack the security on two iPhones that belonged to the shooter in last month's Pensacola naval base attack. Apple said it had given law enforcers "all of the data in our possession."
Fooled me once. Speaking of deja vu, Russian government hackers have attacked Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company at the center of one of President Trump's conspiracy theories about the Biden family. The hacking attempts began in November, as Trump's impeachment defense focused on former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter being on the board of Burisma.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
For 25 years while writing a column about the luxury industry for the Financial Times, Lucia van der Post has witnessed revolutionary changes in the market due to technological and social advances. With cashmere sweaters available in cheap department stores and smoked salmon in every supermarket, the definition of luxury service has changed, she explains in an essay marking the quarter-century anniversary of her column.
The new generation of luxury consumers are tech savvy and time impatient. They want the internet to meet their material needs, yet still expect exceptional service. Today, if you log onto Net-a-Porter or any of the bigger online suppliers you can chat in live time, discuss sizes and get styling advice on demand. Deliveries to many urban centres are now met within minutes. The arrival of TOSHI (only in inner London so far) has added yet another layer to the online experience. With your new dress, handbag or pair of designer shoes arrives a real person to check that they fit and to offer accessories that might further appeal.
ON THE MOVE
Intel hired Archana "Archie" Deskus as its new chief information officer and senior vice president, reporting to CFO George Davis. Deskus comes from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, where she was CIO since 2017...Alphabet's life sciences unit Verily hired former Tesla CFO and Ford Motor exec Deepak Ahuja as its new CFO... Amazon Web Services is losing its vice president of worldwide marketing, Ariel Kelman, to rival Oracle. Kelman will be chief marketing officer, replacing Rupal Shah Hollenbeck. At AWS, Rachel Thornton replaces Kelman...Separately, Avaya chief technology officer Chris McGugan is also joining Oracle, as senior vice president and general manager of service clouds... Alphabet's chief legal officer, David Drummond, will depart at the end of the month after accusations that he violated company policy in a relationship he had with another employee.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
An Explosion of Knowledge: Multiplexed Interventional Genomics By John Stuelpnagel and Bryan Roberts
Forget Policymakers. Greta Thunberg and Her Allies are Targeting CEOs Now By Christiaan Hetzner
What Was Carlos Ghosn Thinking in Pulling off His Great Escape? A Former Colleague Offers Clues By Eric C. Evarts
How Freelancing Can Help Your Career By Sarah Fielding
These $50 ‘Strawberries’ Are Popping Up on Michelin-Starred Menus By Anna Ben Yehuda Rahmanan
BEFORE YOU GO
In a deja vu episode of our streaming entertainment reality, CBS is just weeks away from debuting its newest Star Trek series. Patrick Stewart returns to the role of Jean-Luc Picard in the series, called Picard. Fortune's Stacey Wilson Hunt got some of the inside story of how the show came together. "Picard and I became melded," Stewart says. "He never left me, so there was actually nothing strange about stepping into this role again. It's been far easier than I expected."
Aaron Pressman
On Twitter: @ampressman
Email: aaron.pressman@fortune.com
